Juvenile justice Activists in the legal systems of Iran and Afghanistan; A Comparative analysis of the role of the judge, counselor snd social worker.

Hosseini, Jafar; Javan Jafari, Abdolreza; Hosseini, Seyed Hossein

doi:10.22034/jclc.2025.492902.2081

Juvenile justice Activists in the legal systems of Iran and Afghanistan; A Comparative analysis of the role of the judge, counselor snd social worker.

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

jafar hosseini ¹

Abdolreza Javan Jafari ²

Seyed Hossein Hosseini ²

¹ PhD student in Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

² Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.

10.22034/jclc.2025.492902.2081

Abstract

Achieving criminal justice in the context of juvenile offenders requires the establishment of specialized structures and the involvement of competent actors throughout the judicial process. This comparative- descriptive study examines the role of three key actors- judge, counsellor and social worker- in the legal systems of Iran and Afghanistan. The findings reveal that in Afghanistan the judge makes decisions within a participatory framework with the support of legal assistants, experts and a judicial panel. In contrast, although the presence of a counsellor is mandatory in Iran juvenile courts, their role remains advisory, without any legal authority in decision- making. In both systems, the role of the social worker is primarily limited to the execution stage of the verdict , whereas their active participation throughout the judicial process could significantly contribute to the rehabilitation and reformation of juvenile offenders. This study emphasizes the need to strengthen the role of counsellors in Irans juvenile justice process, expand the scope of social workers involvement in both systems, and lay the legal foundation for participatory justice in Iran and Afghanistan.
Keywords: Juveniles, Criminal procedure, legal actors, counsellor, social worker, Iran, Afghanistan.

Keywords

Juveniles

Criminal procedure

legal actors

counsellor

social worker

Iranian law

Afghanistan law